Relax Divide
by SparksTheSiren
Summary: Nathan Prescott wasn't always the way he was. There was a catalyst. What changed a preteen so much to the point he couldn't recognize himself? His first love and the fall out that followed of course. [Pre-Episode 1]
1. Chapter 1: It Begins

**Chapter 1:**

Loving Nathan wasn't a mistake. Even with the outcome it had, I never blamed him. I only blamed our youth, we were too young to understand the consequences of our actions. We were too young to realize that his family and my people were against each other and engaged in a serious war.

"Looks like you're my partner." He said as he glanced down at me.

I was still in my seat. Even after the teacher had said our names I hadn't bothered to move. All I could do was think. My parents' warning had been clear; stay away from the Prescotts—the Prescotts are not our friends. I bit my lip—Nathan was my age. I'd never seen him do anything worth my anger.

"Yeah," I nodded slowly. "I'm Hanna."

Hanna was my English name—Not that my real one was too complex, but for a reason my parents decided I shouldn't use it in school.

"Nathan," he shrugged before sitting down across from me.

I leaned back in my chair a bit as I flipped through my textbook for the page with the classwork on it. Math was one of my best subjects, and I knew from his silence during class and glancing at his grades on occasion that it was Nathan's weakest. However that didn't put me at a disadvantage.

"I guess—I'll take the evens and you take the odds?" I suggested glancing over the problems. I decided to try and give him the easier of the set in the hopes of limiting the conversation required between us.

"So uhm, why don't you go to school with the others?" He asked quietly. I was one of the few Hopi children who didn't go to the school that the Elders had built for us, so I immediately knew that was what he meant.

My eyes never left my work. "Someone has to."

I could tell the answer had caught him off guard. Thankfully he let it go. Soon after however he spoke up again. This time he simply wanted help. He'd managed to get through just about half of them before he asked. I glanced over the rest of his work. Most of the answers were wrong, but the work was right. I shook my head.

"Maybe we should do them all together," I suggested softly.

His face reddened as soon as he realized he must have gotten them wrong, "Yeah…"

By the end of class we'd barely gotten through five of them. On the Brightside however it seemed like Nathan was starting to understand them a bit better.

"We still have a few days to get them done," I reminded him as we walked out of class. Though I knew those five problems had pretty much been the same type of problem and there were still three other types included on the assignment that I knew he didn't understand. I would say perhaps we should both take half and half, but I realized if he didn't know how to do the easiest of the problems than the others would be almost impossible for him. "We could meet in the library later to work on them?"

That was how it started.


	2. Chapter 2: A Fluke

**Chapter 2:**

"I think you and Nathan should work together more often," The teacher informed with a smile as she handed back out work.

We'd passed. My eyes drifted over to Nathan who seemed completely in shock by the score. Working with him wasn't so bad. We had things in common. He liked photography. I liked photography. Except he preferred taking the pictures while I just liked looking at them. He and I both had to deal with our families feuds even if at the moment it was only indirectly.

"Now for the second part of the project I'd like everyone to come up with a board game involving the types of problems we've been using."

I quirked an eyebrow at the thought. A board game? I couldn't help but let my mind wonder of the possibilities. I tilted my head to the side as I listened to the teacher go on.

"Any ideas for what we'll do?" He asked the second the teacher stopped talking.

I guess I was supposed to come up with the project. I shrugged. "Uhm, what's your favorite board game?"

Nathan's nose scrunched a bit as he shook his head. "I don't really play a lot of board games."

"What?" I snorted. "Who doesn't play board games?"

"I don't—no siblings, no friends—who would I ever play with?" His voice grew quiet.

I rolled my eyes. My pity wouldn't get us anywhere on this project especially since I still had to come up with which board game we'd game we'd use. I started to scribble down names of games.

"Miss, can we use card games?" Another student asked.

"I'm not sure a card game could work for this, but if you think of one then you can describe it to me and I'll decide. Remember guys it still has to be fun."

"Fun, it's math." He responded which earned a good laugh out of the rest of the class.

I smiled and rolled my eyes as I drew a line through the card games I had listed.

"Ha—Ha—Ha," the teacher laughed dryly, "And reminder this is a project that will require working together outside of school."

"What's with the face?" I asked as I drifted into my living room. We had taken the bus to my house after Nathan called home and said he had a project to work on. Now as I watched him standing in my house I could tell that maybe my house wasn't what he expected.

It was normal really the walls were painted a nice orangish brown color. The furniture had a log cabin vibe and there were family pictures on the walls; tv, bookshelf etc. My family thing was the fireplace. The warm colored bricks and tribal masks were hung on the wall and tribal artifacts sat atop it. It wasn't until my eyes landed on it that I realized that maybe Nathan had been expecting more of that sort of thing. I stepped back towards him and took his hand to pull him farther into the house.

"Don't worry sacrifices happen downstairs." I joked.

He swallowed a bit, before he glanced at me. When he realized I was joking his face—or was it because I was still holding his hand—his face started to redden.

"That's not why I was—" He slipped his hand from mine and placed it on the strap of his backpack, "Are you sure your parents won't mind me being here?"

"Even if they did, what can they say?" I shrugged, "We have a project to work on and we can't stay in the library doing it."

Nathan nodded slowly. He didn't seem entirely convinced that him being there was okay and if we're being honest I wasn't quite sure either. I mean I didn't think my parents would kick him out, but I had been told many times to stay away from him and his family. I guess they forgot how small Arcadia Bay really was.

"Which we should start if we plan on finishing it any time soon." I added as I let my feet take me to the dining room table.

Again Nathan lingered behind like his mind was on pause, but this time his feet started again. He stood next to the table for a moment. I gestured and he sat down. I rolled my eyes and I went through my bag.

"So it's definitely got to be a board game."

"How are we going to put math in it?" He asked curiously.

"Maybe… Land on a space and do that math problem?"

Nathan reached scratched his head a bit. "How many math problems do we need?"

"Paper says 20," I reminded.

"So some have math problems and others don't."

"Sounds fair," I nodded. "Maybe 50 spaces between start and finish?"

"Geez, how long is this game going to take to finish?"

"It shouldn't take that long if you're playing with a six sided dice." I shrugged. "Here maybe let's try drawing it out and figure out the rest later."

After that time kind of blurred. Nathan and I worked through most of the project all the while laughing and joking about the various going ons and Arcadia Bay Middle School. It wasn't until I heard the door open that I realized how late it was. My gaze landed on the back door and the lack of light streaming through the window. The clock flashed with 7:57

"Hania," I heard Makya, my brother call.

I couldn't help but freeze up a bit, "I'm in here—with a friend, my friend Nathan."

He scowled as he moved closer to see Nathan sitting at the table. I knew my brother knew exactly who Nathan was. Our father and Makya were two of our people's main representatives when it came to dealings with the Prescotts and the rest of the council.

"Nathan this is my brother Mack," I introduced hoping it would stop my brother from saying whatever harsh comment he had on his mind.

"It's nice to meet you—You have a nice home." Nathan managed as he shifted in his seat.

Great so I was right, the tension was tangible.

"Did my sister offer you anything to drink Nathan?"

I watched as Mack walked into the kitchen and snatched a bottle of water from the refrigerator. He returned and sat it in front of Nathan.

"Do your parents know where you are?" He asked as he grabbed another for himself, "Well, go on and drink."

"Mack," I said quietly, "We were just working on our project."

"I told them I was working on a project with a friend." Nathan said quickly.

"Really? You guys are friends, for how long?"

"Our Math teacher partnered us together," I said trying to remain as calm as possible.

"So you're not friends?" My brother asked. What a jerk. If I said yes we were friends what would he do then? Nothing good. If I said no then it would hurt Nathan's feelings. I bit my lip.

"We are friends, and what does it matter to you Mack?" I asked pushing up from my seat, "Why do you care?"

"Why do I care?" He repeated slamming his bottle of water down onto the counter. "Because you bring this entitled little shit into our house like he's not the cause of all of our problems!"

"He's not!"

"Well his father is and you know what? I'm sick of his parents ruining things for us—For example I hope the water's good you little shit. The creek water used to be good too until your parents started fucking around with it."

"I—I'm sorry." Nathan spoke up.

"You're sorry? You're _fucking_ sorry!?" Mack pushed past me and got into Nathan's face. He gripped Nathan's shirt.

"Mack stop!" I said reaching my hand in their direction.

Mack's hand had been raised at Nathan, but now it was stopped frozen for a millisecond before…

I was back sitting next to Nathan. He was talking again—And Mack was nowhere in sight.

"… He really ate the roll of toilet paper. That's why everyone calls him TP." Nathan laughed.

His laughed died down a bit as he studied me. My confusion must have been written all over my face. What the hell just happened? Mack was there and he was going to hit Nathan and… Is this it? Was it starting?

"You okay?" He whispered.

"I'm fine, I just—I need you to do me a favor. Hide." I stood up from the seat and pressed a hand on his shoulder as I pushed him up from the seat. "My brother'll be in here at any moment and he—Well, he's not a fan of your family."

Nathan frowned for a moment before he nodded and started to put away his books. From the look on his face I could tell that people not liking him because of his family ties was a norm. I almost felt bad as I led him out into the backyard.

"I'll shoo him off and then I'll see about my mom driving you back down."

"And your mom will be okay with me being here."

I shrugged a bit, "She's the peacekeeper."

The door opened, "Hania…"

I shut the porch door gently before slipping into the kitchen to grab two bottles of water.

"Makya," I said as I came back into the dining room and handed him one.

He grinned as he pressed a kiss to my forehead. He opened the water bottle and sighed as he started to drink through it, "I remember we used to be able to get water from the creak."

"Yeah," I nodded absently. "So how was your day?"

"The usual, we spent a good amount of time cleaning up some junk from the trails." He rolled his eyes, "its great y'know, we take care of the park and the human waste aka the 'Prescott' Academy students just muck it up."

"Prescott?" I asked confused.

He offered me a smile, "Well, Blackwell, but everyone knows the Prescotts own that place—just like they own everything else around here. It's disgusting."

I remained quiet for a moment before I sipped my water.

"What? Don't tell me they got you too."

"I just take a class with their son. Math class, he's not very good."

"Probably because there's no money involved."

"He's my partner on this project we're doing…"

"Are you telling me he's your friend?"

"No, I'm saying our teacher partnered us together."

"Good. The last thing we need is a Prescott around here snooping. They've been stealing Hopi artifacts for years and selling them off in auctions." Mack sucked his teeth, "Things that were stolen from us, they just take them and instead of returning them they have them stamped with prices—Filth of the Earth."

He sighed as he tossed his water bottle into the recycling and patted my head, "Anyway I'm going to take a shower."

I watched as he disappeared up the stairs. I ran my fingers through my hair—I had to have been dreaming or maybe I wasn't. What Nathan had said earlier I had heard him say before—the first time. Did I?


End file.
